Attorney-general to accelerate national reforms to protect children

ABC NEWS (Australia)

Let's get more now on the changes to the working with children check system. Leah Bromfield is the director of the Australian Centre for Child Protection and the chair of Child Protection at the University of South Australia. She says while this is a good first step more needs to be done.

Transcript

00:00I see this as an overdue but necessary measure, but actually only a minimum step.

00:09We can't see working with children checks as actually a magic bullet that makes people a safe person.

00:17It only detects people who have already committed a crime.

00:21So absolutely necessary to close that loophole, but there is still more to do.

00:28Is it logistically difficult to do? I mean, it does beg the question why it wasn't being done already.

00:34Ten years is a very long time between the recommendation from the Royal Commission and action.

00:39It is logistically difficult. We have a scheme in every state and territory.

00:45I currently have four working with children checks.

00:48They all have different requirements, different inclusion and exclusion criteria,

00:53and some states have what we call continuous monitoring.

00:57That means if a person who held a working with children check was charged with a crime today,

01:03then the police system would automatically let the working with children authority know on their card would be suspended.

01:11Not all states have that continuous monitoring.

01:14So one of the things that have to be addressed is that actually we have national consistency and continuous monitoring nationally.

01:23I return to it again because I do find it staggering.

01:26As you say, it was 2015 the Royal Commission recommended this.

01:29The Coalition admits it dropped the ball.

01:31I mean, have you got any answers as to why it has taken so long?

01:36I can only speculate. I'm not in the government.

01:40But my speculation is that each state and territory in a federation can think that they're right,

01:47that their scheme is the best scheme and not want to compromise.

01:51When it comes to the safety of children, we do actually need to get past the gaps in federation

01:58and bring together a national system that does meet a minimum threshold

02:03so that we don't have this postcode lottery for children in Australia.

02:08Leah, do you think in a way this was somewhat of a missed opportunity

02:12with all these attorneys general getting together and they've really only made one announcement?

02:18I do, actually.

02:20The Royal Commission made, to me, what was a more important recommendation

02:25and that was a recommendation for 10 principles for child safe organisations.

02:30Working with children checks is one of those principles about adequate screening.

02:35But the 10 principles also talk to strong leadership.

02:40They talk to adequate training, a range of measures,

02:45and really for us to be confident as parents that our kids are safe in organisations.

02:51Those 10 child safe principles, in my view, should be mandatory in all organisations

02:56that are serving Australian children.

02:58And one of the suggestions from the Children's Commissioner, Anne Hollands,

03:01I mean, she has been calling for a long time.

03:04One would have thought it would be a pretty straightforward thing.

03:07A minister for children?

03:10Yes.

03:11Well, I support the National Children's Commissioner's call for a minister for children.

03:16But right now I think our Attorney Generals do have an opportunity

03:20to implement those 10 child safe principles

03:23and I would welcome if they were to come into law in all states and territories.

03:27Again, it's a postcode lottery.

03:29In some states it's a requirement and in other states it's not.

03:33Leah, this is a really difficult question and there's not a definitive answer,

03:37but people will look at what has been said today and say,

03:40would these changes that have been announced have made any difference

03:44to what we've been talking about over the past few weeks in childcare centres?

03:49The answer is actually no.

03:52The issue that we saw in Victoria, that person held a working with children check.

03:58I believe that implementation, strong implementation and oversight of the 10 child safe principles

04:05could have made a difference.

04:07We could have had the requirement for good referee checking as part of that process.

04:14So to me, working with children checks are not enough.

04:17The other thing I think is really important to remember is prevention.

04:21We absolutely have to focus on that.

04:24But we have had a whole new population of children who've been really harmed.

04:29And in Australia, we also know that we don't have enough services for children who have experienced abuse and neglect.

04:36So we have to focus on prevention.

04:39But we also have to make sure that there are places for these children and their families to go to,

04:44to be able to access counselling and support.

04:46And I'm not confident that that is the case.

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